1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to security devices and is particularly directed to means for preventing unauthorized actuation of electrically-operated devices, such as computers and the like.
2. Prior Art
In today's electronic age, virtually all computers and other office equipment are operated by electricity. This has provided great flexibility and versatility for operating such electrical equipment. Unfortunately, it also makes such equipment highly susceptible to actuation by unauthorized persons. In fact, data piracy and sabotage have become major problems of business world. Numerous devices have been proposed, heretofore, to overcome these problems by providing some type of security system to prevent unauthorized use of these devices. However, most of the prior art security systems have been extremely complex and expensive to purchase and install. Furthermore, many of the prior art security systems have been complicated to use or easy to circumvent. Another disadvantage of prior art security systems has been that many of these systems had encoding means which were fixed or were difficult to recode. Thus, if a breach of security occurred, it was difficult or impossible to change the coding to redefine the list of authorized persons. A search in the United States Patent Office has revealed the following:
______________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. INVENTOR ISSUED ______________________________________ 1,353,257 A. Z. Mample Sep. 21, 1920 1,905,965 H. M. Leschke et al Apr. 25, 1933 3,562,596 J. Scheuer Feb. 9, 1965 3,662,342 R. A. Hedlin et al May 9, 1972 3,812,403 K. W. Gartner May 21, 1974 4,267,578 E. O. Vetter May 12, 1981 4,430,728 J. E. Beitel et al Feb. 7, 1984 4,594,637 S. Falk Jun. 10, 1986 Re. 17,797 H. S. Chase et al. Sep. 16, 1930 ______________________________________
However, each of these references is subject to the objections set forth above. Thus, none of the prior art security systems have been entirely satisfactory.